


Random acts of mindlessness

by xantissa



Series: Carnival of Rust [17]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Dubious Science, Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2013-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-21 18:12:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/903319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bones breaks the news to Jim, and the blond Captain lets some things slip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Random acts of mindlessness

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I am no doctor nor do I know anything of genetics so it’s some very, very dubious science happening here. I am alluding somewhat to the mule situation that crossbreeds are physcially capable of reproduction but genetically not really. I am no doctor, nor a genetist myself. Just beware.

Bones kept pressing the doorbell on Jim’s door with shaking hands, urging the young Captain to wake up. As soon as the connection opened Bones said:

 

“Jim! The new guy just went nuts on me! He knocked out Katya and rushed out of the medbay in search of Khan.”

 

“What?” Replied Jim groggy. “Why?” He added, a bit more coherent a few seconds later. “What happened?”

 

Bones swallowed, his throat closing with something very much akin to pity.

 

“Let me in.” This was not something he wanted to discuss whilst standing in the corridor.

 

The door clicked and then slid open, revealing a supremely dishelmed Jim, clad only in a grey, stretched tee shirt and thin, blue sleep pants.

 

Bones pushed into the quarters, not waiting for permission and started pacing immediately.

 

“Mr. Turin woke up sometime during the night and started talking with Katya. I was in my office, looking through their tests results because damn, they are incrediblewhen suddenly he barged into my office, Katya behind him and started questioning me about the  cryopods that were on the Enterprise on the enterprise.”

 

Jim was desperately trying to wake up and understand Bone’s frenzied ramblings but he was so damn tired, and those few shots of whiskey he had before bed weren’t helping any.

 

“So?” He prompted when Bones fell silent.

 

“We already know there were exactly 100 people on Botany Bay, right? Well, Mr. Turin seemed to be convinced that there should be at least two... children amongst the crew.”

 

Suddenly Jim felt more awake than ever.

 

“But there were no children among the pods…” Kirk trailed off, a horrible realization turning his stomach.

 

Bones just averted his eyes and rubbed his hands over his face. He looked very tired and old suddenly. He just nodded, letting Jim come to the correct conclusion rather than spell it out for the young Captain.

 

“Oh God.” Jim muttered, shocked. It was one thing to playwith the lives of crewmembers, adults who chosen the service willingly, and another to do that to a child.

 

“After Mr. Turin realized that there were no children among the pods, he turned to Katya and hit her so hard he actually cracked her skull. It turns out one of the children was hers. He ordered me to sedate her and left, saying he needed to find Khan.”

 

Jim tried to shake off a sudden paralysis.

 

“It’s like a never ending shit-storm. Whenever I think we have things ~~quite~~ well in hand, something like this happens.” Jim went to the computer terminal embedded in the wall and put in his command codes. Soon after he started flicking through the security images looking for Turin.

 

“He doesn’t know where he is or how to move through the ship the size of Enterpise so we should be able to find him in no time. I doubt he even knows how to find Khan r...” Jim trailed off.

 

While tracing Mr. Turin’s steps wasn’t difficult, the fact that the blond first seemed to search out an emergency map on the wall and then study it for some time was a surprise. The blond traced his finger over the huge map, his brows furrowed and eventually tapped the Delta1B sector, the level where Khan was situated.

 

Both Jim and Bones stared for a moment at the way Mr. Turin made a quick and efficient way towards Khan, never once getting lost.

 

“You know, I know those guys keep telling us how much better they are, but it’s moments like these that truly bring it home.” Bones said with something akin to awe in his voice. “I mean, how long did it take him? Five, seven minutes tops to figure out where we could have put Khan? He narrowed down the level. After that it’s just a matter of knocking on the door.”

 

Jim said nothing, but he had to agree that the uncanny adaptability was more than a little frightening.

 

“All he needs is to be on the same level.” Jim said distractedly, switching rapidly through the security feeds, looking for Khan, not really thinking about what he was saying, rather remembering that warm, tingling feeling when Khan was near and the incredible way it felt when Khan touched him eventually. Assuming this connection was born from Khan’s blood it meant that all the Augments had a similar ability and Turin should be able to sense Khan from a much greater distance.

 

Jim was so preoccupied with thinking about the possible consequences and applications of that ability that he didn’t notice how Bones’ eyes suddenly sharpened and fixed on him.

 

“Jim, is there something you are not telling me?”

 

Shit.

 

“Um... it’s not exactly a good time, you know?” he hedged.

 

“Jim.” Bones didn’t really need to say anything more as his face crumpled into his patented scowl and the young Captain had to raise his hands in surrender.

 

“It’s nothing you can help with Bones.” Kirk said gently. “It’s nothing bad. You know the way Khan stops the... _rage thing_ from happening? Well, that same connection allows me to somewhat sense him. At first it was just a few inches, now I sort of know if he’s in his room before I even press the doorbell. If it comes from his blood as he implied, I think the rest of people have the same ability. It’s probably very useful during missions, to know where his people are without the use of any kind of device.”

 

“Jim, you can’t keep those things to yourself! I’m your doctor, I need to know them! How can I help you if you keep mum about the symptoms!” Raged McCoy.

 

The Captain sighed.

“I didn’t want you to _help_. I actually want this side effect!” He snapped, exasperated. Why did everyone insist on treating him like a child?

 

Bones was silent for a while.

 

“Why? Just being aware of where he is can’t be that attractive. While I agree it could come in useful in the field, you are a Captain; you don’t get to be in the field all that often.”

 

Damn the doctor, sometimes he was just too smart.

 

Jim licked his lips and shifted his eyes away from his friend when answering him.

 

“The connection goes both ways I think. While he can stop the rage and the paranoia, I can somewhat sense his emotions. Have you you notice how well I read him?”

 

Bones nodded.

 

“Yes I’ve noticed. I just put it down to you spending an unhealthy amount of time watching and thinking about him.”

 

Jim could feel his cheeks burning but he kept quiet.

 

“Jesus kid, him? Really?” Bones spluttered, finally realizing just what Jim was hiding from him.

 

The blond shrugged but said nothing.

 

“No survival instinct, _none_ at all.” Muttered the doctor.

 

“Leave it Bones, just...leave it.” There must have been something in his tone, but the doctor sighed again and nodded his acquiescence.

 

“So the results I was talking about,  recently I tried to find as much information on the actual process that was used to create the Augments, anything medical that might still exist. I managed to find some old journals and historic reports but that’s a very sketchy source of information. You have to understand, the creation of a superior race as the result of experiments or artificial lifeforms taking over the human race has been something of  anightmare to people. The scientists that created Khan and his people wouldn’t have let the Augments have reproductive ability. Besides, no surviving records of the Eugenics War mention anything about children. Still when I tested Khan and Katya I didn’t find the expected flaws in their DNA. I found something else.” Bones paused for breath, clearly uncomfortable with the subject.

 

“What are you trying to say?”

 

“I told you I studied their test results, right?There is something very odd, almost wrong with their DNA. The oddity is present in Katya and Khan but not Turin and I couldn’t figure out quite why. Now I think I know.”

 

“Couldn’t it be an accident? They were designed in a lab after all, it takes time to perfect the procedure I think.” Jim played the devil’s advocate.

 

“Yes. But from what I can tell, and I am no expert on genetics, I think the extensive changes to their DNA were done by the use of a retrovirus on an already mature person.”

 

Jim blinked.

 

“I’m no doctor but shouldn’t it be impossible?”

 

“On an ordinary human? Yes, it would kill them. The cells would die before they could completely rewrite their sequencing. But taking into account that Augments have an astonishing rate or regeneration, I think it’s possible.”

 

“Damn Bones, speak clearly. I don’t follow. I am not a doctor, I really don’t understand what you are trying to tell me.”

 

Bones sighed, looking older, tired and very apprehensive.

 

“Fine. I think someone, most probably Khan, experimented on himself and his people after they established their powerbase. It’s actually the fact that there were children that tipped me off. I think they wanted to remove what was that was written into their DNA that kept them infertile. After all it’s no use making them as weapons and then risking them populating the whole planet.”

 

Jim still looked lost, obviously not getting to the point that Bones really didn’t want to spell for him.

 

“Okay that sounds disturbing, but most things about Khan are. What does it actually have to do with current situation?”

 

The doctor licked his lips, his whole posture radiating his discomfort.

 

“If there were two children, there had to be more, I would bet my life on it. Why then did only those two make it to the ship? Why provide so much resources and space for two children who need protection and are basically a liability in case they woke up in hostile territory? They must have taken that situation into account. The Augments were predominantly a militaristic society, they had to have always thought in terms of risk management.”

 

Jim thought about his conversation with Khan a few hours before. The man all but said he was prepared for anything...

 

“Why take those two and not more? If Botany Bay was designed for a hundred people it most probably meant crewmembers, not children. Taking those kids meant that at least two augments were left on Earth, probably to die.”

 

Kirk said nothing, only stared at Bones with wide eyes, not really wanting to hear the rest, but unable to look away and stop.

 

“Turin was exceedingly upset and very, very unwilling to provide answers about the children.” Bones swallowed. “There is only one explanation that makes sense. Those children were taken abroad Botany Bay because they were Khan’s.”

 

“Oh God.” Jim felt his knees give out and he sat down heavily on the edge of his bed. “His children.”

 

“Yes.” Bones confirmed again. “I don’t like the man and sure as hell don’t trust him. I think he should have been executed for all the lives he took, but this... no one deserves this atrocity, to survive that..., it’s a wonder he is not completely cracked.”

 

The blond captain got up and approached the control panel again, where the camera view of the deck that held Khan’s quarter showed Turin approaching.

 

“You should leave now.” Jim said, all too aware of how much Bones didn’t like this whole plan.

 

Bones looked at him then at the door and him again. His brows were furrowed and he looked ridiculously rumpled.

 

“No.”

 

Jim whipped his head to look at the doctor.

 

“What?”

 

“I’m not leaving you alone with this. I realize that my reluctance left you shouldering almost all of the weight of this mission. I said I was your friend Jim but I haven’t been behaving like one. I left you alone, dealing with the kinds of things you only dream in your worst nightmares. So, no, I will not leave. Besides there needs to be another, impartial witness to this whole mess than just you. So I will stay while you hack whatever it is you want to hack.” Bones said calmly, dragging one of the rooms chairs to face Jim and sitting down.

 

“Err... what makes you think I would have hacked anything?” even to his own ears it sounded very, very weak.

 

“Two words.” Bones said dryly “Kobayashi. Maru.”

 

Jim snorted but didn’t protest any more.

 

“I want to activate the communication system as a one way relay.” Jim said while tapping quickly at the screen.

 

The doctor watched him in silence for a while before speaking.

 

“You realize that is a huge breach of privacy... and trust.” It was almost gentle, the way McCoy spoke. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

 

Jim snorted but didn’t pause in his tapping.

 

“Believe me Bones, I know Khan doesn’t trust me one bit. As much as I want, no need him to be on my side, I am aware that the only side Khan ever will be is his own.”

 

Jim could feel the doctors’ pitying gaze on his back, so he focused on his work and didn’t look back. And if his throat felt a little tight, well it wasn’t like anybody but him knew about it.

 

The end.

23-07-2013


End file.
